With snow covering the highland areas of Tabuk province in Saudi Arabia, there's not much else to do with the fluffy white stuff other than build snowmen and snow camels.

But with photos of snowpeople and snow camels popping up everywhere, Munajjid made it clear that Islamic teachings strictly prohibit the practice.

Asked whether the unusually snowy winter in Saudi Arabia meant that parents could build snowmen with their children, Munajjid delivered the bad news.

"It is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun," Munajjid wrote on his Web site, according to Reuters.

He also pointed out that making images of humans and animals — anything with a "soul" — is strictly off-limits.

"God has given people space to make whatever they want which does not have a soul, including trees, ships, fruits, buildings and so on," he added.

If you think that sounds slightly depressing, you're not alone.

“We have snow for fleeting days, maybe even hours, and there is always someone who wants to rob us of the joy and the fun,” wrote a blogger identified by Gulf News as Mishaal. “It seems that the only thing left for us is to sit down and drink coffee."

But Munajjid has his supporters.

"It [building snowmen] is imitating the infidels, it promotes lustiness and eroticism," wrote one person, according to Reuters.

In the wake of the raucous debate on social media sparked by his fatwa, Munajjid weighed in again and walked back his comments — sort of.

On Twitter, Munajjid noted that snow objects can be made, so long as they don't have human or animal features. Specifically, a model with no head and obliterated features is perfectly fine.

“The model should be like the scarecrow with no features sculpted into the face that is used by farmers to scare away birds,” he wrote, according to Gulf News. “It could also be similar to some shapes that are used to warn people about roadworks. There is no problem with the shapes that children build since children need to play and to have fun, especially in areas where snowfall is scarce."

And for those who were wondering, the prohibitions also apply to gingerbread men and other human-shaped winter treats.

“The ban, condoned by religious scholars, also covers models of people and animals made of sweets and paste, not just snow, if their facial features are clearly sculpted,” Munajjid added. “This means that if the model has no head or the facial features are obliterated, then there is no ban on it."

This entry was posted on 2/13/2015 03:30:00 AM
and is filed under
MUSLIM
.
You can follow any responses to this entry through
the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response,
or trackback from your own site.

8
comments:

Mike Hawk
said...

Sounds like a splendid retirement destination for Schitzengiggles, since he doesn't want to retire to Mexico as I suggested to him. :-)

Ha, nah...as I said I like it where I am. On the other hand you might fit in there well since conservatives seem to love the Saudis. Hell amigo, you might even get the regulars to pitch in to buy you a ticket and help you pack.

It appears that many Muslims disagree with the cleric's fatwa, which does seem over the top to me.

But are conservatives equally questioning AL Supreme Court Judge Roy Moore's "fatwa" to lower court AL judges to ignore both the Federal Court and the Supreme Court's rulings that AL has to permit same sex marriage??

Welcome to the Right-Wing Forward Museum

MyRightWingDad.net is a museum dedicated to following the course of American history through a unique lens -- the emails "Red-America" forwards worldwide. Take a look around the archive using the keywords below, and leave a comment or two.

This museum displays unedited, often offensive and untrue material with no endorsement intended by curators or contributors.